Über Dark Chocolate Ice Cream, I mean, Sorbet

Bonus: It’s national cell phone courtesy month! Again!

I’ve been neglecting the blog, so I thought I’d post about some of the miscellanea I make in addition to pies during the summer. Prominent in that miscellanea is ice cream (gelato, sorbet, really anything sweet and cold and processable in my ice cream maker). I love ice cream. A lot. And one of the great things about America is we take the time to recognize the importance of really important things like hot dogs, and dead presidents, and we honor them with their own days and/or months as God intended. Which is why July is national ice cream month (and national hot dog month, national blueberry month, national anti-boredom month, and national cell phone courtesy month — all extremely important things). July is also nuclear hot, what better time then to try some new ice cream flavors.

Food52 posted a chocolate sorbet recipe by David Lebovitz a couple weeks back which claimed to be “impossibly creamy” like ice cream even though it contained no cream. This I had to try for myself. Verdict? OMG. David Lebovitz and Food52 do not lie. Not only was this sorbet pretty much indistinguishable from premium ice cream, but it was so intensely dark chocolate that, well, if dark chocolate were a black hole, you’d be served this sorbet when you arrived at its singularity. Provided you survived crossing the chocolate’s event horizon. It’s that good. It’s black hole death good.

Extra bonus: If you want a super ice cream recipe challenge, this week I’ll be making Mom’s Forth of July Ice Cream Bombe. You should make it too! It’s über très American.

DARK CHOCOLATE SORBET

From from David Lebovitz’s “Chocolate Sorbet”
Yield: About 3 cups

Note: I noticed in the comments on this recipe that some people said it didn’t firm up properly. To counter this, make sure you chill the mixture thoroughly before placing it in your ice cream maker. Also, make sure you process it long enough. In my ice cream maker, the sorbet was still quite runny at 25 minutes, but had firmed up a lot by 30 minutes. It still was very soft when I removed it, but after whisking it into the freezer for a couple of hours, it came out perfect.

2 1/4 cups (555 ml) water
1 cup (200 g) sugar (if you want it really dark, reduce sugar to 3/4 cup)
3/4 cups (75 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
6 ounces (170 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large saucepan, whisk together 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) of the water with the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Bring to a boil whisking frequently. Let it boil, continuing to whisk for 45 seconds.

Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until it’s melted, then stir in the vanilla extract and the remaining 3/4 cup (180 ml) water. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend for 15 seconds. Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If the mixture has become too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.